Songfacts®:

• Written by Broadway composer Frank Wildhorn (Jekyll & Hyde) and '60s R&B singer Chuck Jackson, this ballad was the last in a string of seven consecutive #1 hits for Houston, smashing the 6-hit record held by The Beatles and The Bee Gees.
  
  Wildhorn had been itching to write a song for Houston ever since he heard her duet with Teddy Pendergrass, "Hold Me," four years earlier. When Jackson called him with the song title, the rest came together quickly. "I sat there at the piano," Wildhorn told Billboard, "and in about 40 minutes, 90 percent of the sketch of the song was done. I called (Jackson) back and said, 'You gotta come over here tonight because I think we've got something.'" The duo finished the song that night.
• Houston didn't think a song about a woman trying to convince her boyfriend to come back to her had enough depth, but Arista Records president Clive Davis assured her it would be a hit. Not only did it top the Hot 100, but the song was also #1 on the Adult Contemporary Chart and #2 on the R&B chart.
• The Peter Israelson-directed music video finds Houston in her dressing room after receiving roses and a goodbye note from her boyfriend. She remembers the happier times in their relationship before reuniting with him at the end. Because the race of Houston's onscreen boyfriend wasn't apparent, the clip caused a bit of controversy among black audiences who accused the singer of moving further and further away from her roots to appease white audiences.